whiteshade of blackness 'gaku october 1, 2006

9 Vagary

'...Amaranthea... What would you do..'

'...if you had one person that meant half the world to you... and you had to abolish your other hemisphere for the life of that person...'

'...What would you do...?'

((... if you let one die because you couldn't decide, would that mean that you have only half of your world left..?))

'...'

She smiled...

((...You know which half you had to choose... You wouldn't loose a half for the sake of the other half..))

(( You would only be combining your one hemisphere with the other, ...then you will have a whole sphere of your world..., isn't that so...?))

She smiled...

'. . . . . . I'm sorry. . . .'

. . . . . . . . . . . . . she smiled

Odin opened his eyes in dread, his heart beating painfully in his throat, choking his every breath. He could feel a velvety hand covering his hand that was holding the sword hilt, like a brush of cool breeze, and another one at his shoulder, a body of white-velvety smoke enshrouded his figure. He could see tendrils of white-smoke long hair that were transparent and rippled as if in water from behind him. His heart could hear Her whispered calming words slowly.

Gradually, as his mind calmed down little by little from the shock, he could feel a trembling small body enfolded in his crouching one. His senses were robbed by the darkness, but his heart's ear could hear the small keening sounds from the balled figure in his embrace. His mind knew instinctly who it was, he closed his eyes again and sent Her heart that surrounded them to the frightened one.

It's alright... everything's alright. His mind reiterated the whispered words in his heart to the small figure. The sounds stopped, but the quivering didn't lessen. Then he felt a small hand clutched his other hand painfully, despite its trembling. He smiled a little at that...

After what felt like hours, the darkness thinned gradually. Odin saw a sliver of silvery wave with specks of red light rippled in it near his spot. That must be Howard's barrier. Anyway, he didn't worry about the old-Charms. What plagued his mind right now was Lyea's wellbeing. He only saw a flash of her before Deia exploded.

'...Please, Orebell... Please be with her when it happened... please..please...!' and his mind begged halfconsciously calling the name he hadn't called for a long time.

A wave of comfort came from the old-Charms when the darkness had thinned enough for Odin to see his barrier-sphere completely, Howard gave a reassuring smirk from inside the semi-transparent wave. Odin replied with a nod.

Finally the darkness ebbed to its center of conflagration, coiling around Deia's stilled figure that was standing by the now vanished double doors, along with about one-tenth of the Castille and its fixtures of the current levels.

The general and the old-Charms widened their eyes at the sight that greeted them. Various scraps of things that had given protection-charms strong enough to survive the exploding darkness were floating at their supposed positions, while the surrounding had vanished to nothing, replaced by black space, making the sight resembled a warped version of outer space. While the floor parts that were occupied by them left partly broken under their feet. They could see barrier-spheres of the other Charms in the near vicinities that were also caught in the explotion. With a heavy heart, they realized that they will be counting casualties who were unfortunate enough to not having protection-charms or talismans or Spells.

To their biggest relief, a fade-blue shimmers of a Veiled-Spell(1) could be seen veiling a familiar Lord and the stun-faced Lady Lyea in his embrace. Before they could blow a sigh of relief, though, Lyea cried and jolted with a hand reaching out to her sister's form.

"..Dearest...!!"

And as the coiling darkness died down exposing her, Deia's body collapsed lifelessly like a marionette being cut off of its strings.

Howard acted in a flash and caught her before she fall down the deep black space created under her feet.

As they could move again, one of the Charms teleported in front of them to where the corridor was supposed to be, and asked in a frantic, "What happened ?!" followed by several other Charms.

Howard blinked once, and with lifted brows he slowly put his forefinger on his lips. They all frozen for a moment, and suddenly the place broke to a beelike emergency actions.

The old-Charms turned his head, noting that the boy had collapsed too by exhaustion in Odin's hands, albeit his eyes were still opened a slit and burned at him... or rather, at the inanimated figure in his arms. Howard looked at Odin's eyes, and exchanged an unspoken confirmation, then to the silent Lord.

Odin brought the wet little towel and wiped the boy's face gently, then moved on to his hands starting from the fingers upward, when he got to the shoulders, though, he stopped and looked long at the boy's impassive face. His prussian eyes were clouded, that made them seemed a darker color almost black. Those eyes were distant, focused on something unseen passed the adult's back. Odin suppressed a sigh and looked down from his pale face to his chest, he thinned his lips. A large blackish purple bruise was there, centered from under the craft-plate with shoots of black arteries painted the skin outward. It must hurt like hell if an internal injury managed to be that severe as to be seen from the outside like that, he respected the boy for enduring such a pain and managed to hide it for long; but hell, he'd never seen such an injury like it in his life, was it internal wound, or an infected one, or a stage of some illness; it looked almost like it was some living organism digging its apendages to make the boy's body its host. The Solo-beast had said that the craft-plate is eating him alive, is that it? Well with this kind of damage off course the boy would know by himself that he's dying...!

He furrowed his bleak-white brows then resumed his work wiping the boy's chest as gently as he could, his eyes darted every now and then to his face, as if expecting a painfilled expression on it. But the face didn't even flinch a fraction, it looked dead like a statue.

The door to the room opened suddenly, and in came the old-Charms with a serious face for once. The boy lifted his head to him in alert, his eyes focused sharply, wide with expectance and worry. Howard caught for a brief second when he noticed the nightmarish bruise on the boy's chest, then proceeded to where Odin kneeled in front of the boy who was sitting on the bed.

"Casualty ?" Odin asked without looking at him.

"They're still counting !"

A small cough erupted from the boy's chest, but choked down in his throat. Howard flinched a little, that must hurt a thunder lot. He seemed to swallow in difficulty for a moment, but his eyes were still wide open at Howard. It was the most open stare from the boy he'd received since the first time.

"She's asleep.." Howard gave him a smile of assurance, his tight face slackened "Lady Dee didn't let loose Harmony back then, so she wouldn't be getting exhausted to death like before..!", but the wrinkles between his brows didn't disappear.

Then, what did she let loose?! The question hung heavily in the air after he finished the sentence. He knew the boy probably wouldn't care even for a bit, but this Land does!

"Lady Lyea said that she had a nighmare before that, and she must've blown her anxiety out..!!" Howard shrugged.

"Well, so much for the plan... went well like hell..!" he huffed and said it to noone in particular. He had made arrangements for the boy to a place in the outerland where he had someones to asked for help, those someones might not know much in the task of mending the dying boy –and his craft-plate issue-, but at least they would be able to try something without the Air worsen the boy's state. They had planned to tell Deia that based on the day's examinition by Her, that the boy must be relocated to the arranged place; off course Deia will have a fit, but she'll listen to Odin's Fairs... she always listens to them !

"I'm sorry, I should've realized it sooner... so you don't have to endure that bad !" Howard stared at the uncanny bruise on his chest, wondering how such a small fragile looking boy could survive something like that, he was sure humans couldn't.

To their surprise, the boy shook his head as answer. He never did any of that kind of body language before so they had to dechiper his beastly-gestures.

"You know, right...?" –that they will let him be the scapegoat for the incident, since they wouldn't want anyone beside them to know who had caused it. They will let people think that it was his power that exploded when they tried to mend him again, and when Deia say that it was her fault people will think that she's defending the beast-boy because she had said it that she will take full responsibility for everything the beast would cause.

His eyes dimmed again and he casted his eyes down, then gave a little nod.

"...You don't mind...?" Howard asked apologetically. The boy shook his head again slowly.

"...So much for parting with your pack for the sake to be with Lady Dee, hu ?" Howard snickered dejectedly. The boy's head snapped at him at that, his eyes stared waveringly and distanced. He was frozen like that for a long time, when Odin's hand cupped his face he closed his eyes, feeling his thumb stroked his cheek slowly. The wind blew cooly from the tower's windows, it was the one place where Odin would go if he wanted the solitude, the one place where he allowed himself to be a human and not a hardened general, where he could allow himself to mourn for Her. He's always a bit melancholy in there, that's why usually he wouldn't allow anyone else to enter the tower-room.

"I'll stay with you for the most part... She wants that !" he flicked his head to the talisman-sword hanging from his belt. But he didn't voiced the thought that flashed in his mind, whether the boy could go back to the Land afterwards, or not...

The boy's lips thinned and trembled, then he opened them as if to say something. But he froze and shut his mouth tight, then just nodded a little.

Howard left then after saying that he had to see to other things. But the boy knew he was being prepared to leave the Land in next to no time. His heart crumbled, he'd needed the reason to stay alive, to survive his own body. He thought he could make his Human to be that Reason, apparently that Reason couldn't survive his illness, he wouldn't want his Human to have to struggle with his death too... perhaps being faraway from his Human would give him a fracture of peace to surrender to his body.

He smiled. . . . .

Lyea knocked at the dark maroon round-door and entered when the said door opened itself. The chamber behind it was full with long dark maroon drapes that pooled on the floor, they were hung everywhere and strangely flowing as if blown by an ever-presence breeze; the light-crystals in the walls gave dim illuminations of red-lights, blackish red flower petals were scattered on the red tiles, some candles holding crimson flames floated in groups in the air.

"...Kyllea..?" she called softly, and sat on the backless sofa-bed in the middle of the room.

"Milady...!" a soft female voice greeted her from behind the drapes. "How's your Dearest ?"

"...Asleep.."

"Hm...that was close..., much too close, in fact !" –pause. "...They're going to make the boy the scapegoat, yes...?"

Lyea nodded halfheartedly.

"That might be for the best,...if not, he wouldn't take any persuation to leave the Land ! He'll die by the Air if not by his injury..! Soon !!"

"...but Dearest would be devastated when 'e finds out about this..!"

The voice took longer pause, as if contemplating. "Dearest would know how to settle things, in time...!"

. . . . Really.. ? NOT the Deia she knew... and she barely knew the other.. Duo...

Lyea sighed heavily. "HE's waking up, right...?"

The voice hummed affirmation. "Though I couldn't really say that... HE's always in there the whole time, HE just didn't bother to show it that HE's in the consciousness...!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . "...This Land will kill HIM..! Or the other way around !!"

A soft chuckle, "I have never lost Lady of the Land for generations... NOT in my protection, Milady ! NOT in this Land !!"

....Mother died because there's already the next Lady of the Land, her..!! Lyea frowned with apprehension.

". . . Since when do this Land's people became so vile, Kyllea ? Sacrificing children for OUR sakes ...?! We were supposed to be the faithful people guarding a sacred place !"

"You shouldn't burden yourself so much... My-half will take care of this mess, for now.."

"Kyle's back...?!" Lyea asked surprisedly, but brightened nonetheless. "Why hadn't you reported that to me ? So you managed to lessen the casualty, right..?!" –because she didn't want her Dearest to be a murderer, even without the intention of doing it, killing is killing. Then this Land will deffinitely kill HIM !!

"Hmmm... the unprotected people might have been ported through the vessels, I think you could find them lost in the Forest...!" -...and THAT was a people-eating Forest good for, swallowing teleported people from the Air and keep them in it untill they die. Well, see the bright side...! They just have to find them before the Forest eats them, right ?!

"...As for Dearest,.." the voice hummed again, "...I don't think I'd say that 'e'll be alright, 'e's the CHAOS as I recall, anyway !"

"Hmmm, I could predict Deia's actions, but I don't know about HIM...!" Lyea nodded, the latest incident proved it.

She frowned in deep thinking for long, then nodded to herself as she made the resolve. Lyea stood with renewed strength, "Thankyou for the helps, Ky'...!" She smiled at the chamber.

Behind her between the flowing drapes stood the maiden with wine-colored hair, she bowed slow and deeply at her departure.

((...at your service, Milady..)) the maiden smiled to noone in particular, her voice was echoed and breezelike.

Just then, she felt the familiar presence in the chamber.

((Kyle..., Milady asked about you !))

(( I know !))

(( ...'something ? ))

(( In the vessels back then, ... I realized something... ))

(( ...What ? )) she asked as her-half suddenly stopped deliberating.

(( . . . . . . The boy's craft-plate... it's the same with HIS power just now...!))

She frowned (( It has the same power...? ))

(( NO ! I said it IS the same..! His craft-plate might be the compact-form of the power ! ))

She widened her eyes at that, then narrowed them with dangerous gleams. "...If someone wanted HIM to be awakened intentionally, we'll just have to take care of the intruder, right ?"

Her-half didn't answer, ...didn't have to, they're one.

"...Done! Let's go...!" Odin secured the cloak hood on the boy's head, a long scarf covered half his lower face to block the gust of wind somewhat. Under the cloak he was dressed in a turtleneck shirt and short tunic, trousers for the ride and a pair of boots. Odin also wore simple common clotches so as to not attrack any unwanted attention. "Can you walk ?" The boy moved slowly, Odin didn't know whether he did it deliberately because he didn't want to leave or because his physical condition only allowed him that much movement. May be both. In his heart he felt like they're absconding too, but he couldn't help the situation any other way.

He scooped the boy from where he was bracing his body weight on the bedpost, his shaky legs wouldn't accommodate him much to walk by himself. He's in shock, Odin noted. Still, his featherlight weight amazed him somehow. "You're not earthbound..!" He said. –as most Fairs' also-

The boy nodded slightly. "Can you fly...?" He couldn't help himself from asking that. The boy only flicked his head as a shrug.

A summon-beast was waiting for them on the tower terrace, it was a hound akin to doberman, only with additional of a series of rock-like horns adorning its head and black flamy longfur on each of its four ankles. Some luminescent pattern-lines coloring its bodyparts distinctively. Howard was talking with the beast using his Harmony, stroking its muzzle in front of his chest.

"Your warsteed will be waiting for you on the outeredge !" he said without looking back at the general and the boy carried in his arm. They agreed they couldn't use teleportation to get them to the inneredge of the Forest, not when the Castille still buzzing like beehive on fire.

Odin looked at the summon-beast, off course it's Howard's, not many Charms capable of lending their summon-beasts for other's use in great distance, usually they were limited for the summoner's only or in close sepparation. He flicked his brow up, then looked sidelong at the old-Charms.

"What ?!" Howard seemed a bit deviant, "...The camel's mine !" he added hotly.

Odin only flicked his head mimicking the boy's shrug before. Behind his back, Howard humphed.

"Safe journey..!" Howard said when the beast took-off.

And that's how they departed from the place, without even saying a farewell to his Human. The boy closed his eyes and hid his face on Odin's chest. The older man held him tighter and covered his small body with his bigger cloak, as if to protect him from his land. Truth be told, he felt a strong protectiveness towards the boy, he didn't want him being consumed by this land's provisions of circumstances too, like Her.

"I was..." he said almost whisperingly, knowing the boy could hear him despite the gust of wind clawing at them, "...an adopted drifter."

The boy blinked inside the shrouding cloak.

"My mother was from a nomadic clan that wandered in the outerlands. They said father was a traveler of this land's native, but I never saw him, though, only stories and rumors. Well, with my traits I guess I couldn't have said otherwise...!" Odin snorted a smirk.

"Mother's clan was exterminated when I was very young, so I wandered aimlessly for several years on my own. 'Wasn't the only survivor, but they never treated me as one of their own since the beginning."

His lifestory wasn't a secret, so he didn't care if the Air brought his voice to any open ears right now.

"I did everything just to stay alive, many of those things I wasn't so proud of. I acquainted with some OWLs too, you know, ...'a few of them still."

He felt the boy's eyes burnt on him. "You already knew it, didn't you ?"

"I made a fatal mistake around teen age... right then Orebell saved me and took me to his family."

"Ah !! He didn't like it when I call him with that nickname, too bad you couldn't see his face if he heard me calling him that right now..!" Odin chuckled to himself. Under his cloak, the boy cocked his head. "Yup ! That's him..!!" His smirk grew larger. (...somewhere in the Castille, someone's sneezing)

They've entered the Forest for sometime. He felt a pair of eyes on them burning his every senses since they entered it, sometimes like being watched from the trees, sometimes from the grounds under, or by the winds, the lights casted through the Forest's canopy, the Air... What puzzled him was that the adult-human didn't seem to realize it, despite his carrying a Fairs-blade, or may be he acted like he's ignoring it ?

But it weighed on his being so much that he'd forgotten about his agonized chest for a long moment. His grip tightened on the man's shirt. 'Bear with it a little longer, almost there..!' Odin said in his mind, the boy sensed it despite his depressed state, nevertheless he felt a little relief that the man was not unaware of it.

Suddenly the weight of that stare multiplied tens times it felt like it's exploding his senses. The boy gasped and whimpered twice, after that he couldn't sound his agony anymore. He held the man's body like a lifeline, feeling his bigger body bended forward as if to try to shield his small one.

'It wants you... Whatever happens, don't let go of me !' He said, patted the beast to get faster. He never liked this Forest !

Deia woke to sitting position with a loud gasp. Her breath was heavy and labored, her wide eyes unfocused and distant. She held one hand at her chest as if in pain. Right at the side of the bed Lyea brought a cloth to wipe her sweat on her face.

"Dearest ? You alright...?"

Deia took some moment to slowly faced her, still distracted greatly. "Dearest ?" She called again.

She opened her mouth several times with no sound came out. After mechanically sipped a glass of watter presented to her once, she whispered brokenly the beast-boy's name.

Lyea's face drooped a little, but she smiled assuringly. "He's safe !"

"Odin's taking him to a place where he could mend much better...!"

Deia shook her head in disbelief. Something's wrong !! Her instinct screamed at her. She jolted out of the bed, or at least tried to. Lyea's grip held her surprisingly strong, keeping her on her place.

"Don't..! He couldn't survive the Air !!" She said it bluntly.

Deia's eyes sharply focused on her's, her chin trembled. "I know...!" She said brokenly.

"I knew it from the beginning... But he's mine, whatever happens to him...!" She said firmer and almost barked at the end.

Lyea's eyes widened in disapproval and disbelief at her sister's confession. "Deia ...!!"

"HE'S MINE...!!" Deia pulled her hand from Lyea's grip forcefully, and jumped out of the bed. A stretched out hand stopped her on her tracks, though. She looked sharply at the owner, it was the wine-color haired maid. Her eyes admonished Deia's levelly with straight expression on her face.

Somehow Deia felt assaulted by her stare, she took a couple wary steps backward.

"Lady Deia, you should listen to Milady's saying...!" the maid said softly, but her ears were ringing with alarms from her insides her head felt floating.

"Step aside...!" Deia said in a trembled hiss. Noticing the maid didn't budge, she barked out at her with scalding expression. "NOW !!"

Lyea jumped surprisedly at the expression she saw on her sister's face. She'd never seen such a Wild's expression on her face ever!

The maid lowered her hand, and Deia bolted immediately to the doorway.

"Deia..!!"

"Just try to stop me...-!!!" She never finished her sentence. The maid's hand grabbed her left wrist, and at the same time she felt the Air blasted closing in on her, keeping her frozen as if a thousand blades touched her being, daring her to move.

"Kyllea...!"

She heard Lyea's voice carying the disapproval and emergency behind her. The maid's hand released her's, and she dropped powerless to Lyea's grasp. Deia heard her called her name a few times softly, her hand brushed her face several times too. But she was stunned to paralysis for quite sometime, her eyes stared shockly at the maid's.

Feeling the shock turned to anger at the assault, Deia greeted her teeth at last, still held the maid's stare, ignoring the dribble of blood on her chin from her bitten tongue. She planted her feet on the floor and set a stance ready to fight whatever comes herway.

"Kyllea...!" Lyea said peevishly at the maid. Underlined that Lyea NEVER said anything peevishly, before.

Kyllea sighed softly, then stepped aside.

"I'm going out !" Deia said passedly to her father.

The Lord saw his daughter barged pass him with a battle-ready air exuded from her, leaving a trail of solid Air behind her.

"What ?! Where ?"

"..WAIT..!!" he set his step to follow her.

"Take somebody along, Father, you'll find the missing people in the Forest...!" Lyea said passing him from behind. The Lord noted that she had called him 'father', Lyea only called him that in formal situations.

"Wha...?! Lyeaa...!"

"Milord...!" a maid with wine-colored hair passed him too.

The Lord stopped at his tracks. "You..!!" He exclaimed acussingly pointing his index finger.

"Milord...!" The Charms around him had stopped at what they're doing and were staring at him, waiting for orders.

The Lord sweatdropped. "...You addressed me with the title just to dictate me for fun...!" he exclaimed peevishly. The Charms blinked.

Howard walked pass him chuckling openly. Their Lord never ceased to amaze him.

"How-waaaard...!!" The Lord followed the old-Charms childishly fuming. The Charms blinked again and stared at one another, then set to follow the barging line.

The Land's Boundary was near, the boy felt his heart of heart almost leaped in joy for the oncoming freedom, but somehow half of his heart died with every track the summon-beast left behind; the worse-half or the better-half he didn't know, he couldn't judge his-self right now, didn't want to... it was easier to be someone's claim, so he wouldn't judge himself, that every judgement would be on his claimer's behalf. In the back of his consciousness, something whispered condemningly that he was using 'his Royal-Human' as that. It's over... his mind answered; he din't have the chance to use Human like that, so stop blaming him for everything...! And he's falling, again...

The weight of the assaulting stare on them had multiplied again to the level of unbearable now; scalding, consuming, devouring his consciousness...he felt his whole self was being teared apart by the overwhelming power the intent gaze carried. Who was it ? What did it want ? It was just whoever-it-was' scrutiny and its power had already at the level of this enormous...?

His breaths slowed down to hisses, somehow they'd become regular and controled. His eye pupils were dilated and became luminescent, his trembles hadn't lessen but his agony almost ignorable now. Something powerfully familiar upsurged from his insides, and he gloomly aware that it was his corrupt-self, despite the sense of immunity it spread to his conscious-self. He succumbed to the double-assaults from the outside and inside, and just prayed that noone will get hurt when he lost his-self completely. An echoing sound like waterdrop chimed in his mind, it came to his awareness from the talisman-sword at the man's waist. Be at peace, it said; and so he just let all worries go... he let his-self go..

...And the Boundary was just a breath away... and the sounds of a summon-beast galloped echoed like a thick layer of blanket.. and the sunlight from outside the Forest blinded his delirious eyes...

And as they felt the surge of bursting electrical spell-ward of the Land's -that were solidified from each Stalwart to one another- as they broke free from the Boundary... That's when he felt his-self slipped from him and freed from the weighing assaults... and he inhaled ... feeling his body full of strength and power, and light as flames exalting skyward.

The summon-beast was engulfed by silvery waves of light as the spell-ward was broken through making sounds like broken glass, and when it stepped down from its leap it was interchanged with Odin's warsteed, the summon-beast returned to Howard's space. The black warsteed ran the few kilometers in a short time, as the veiling white Stratus getting thinner and thinner and transparent allowing the sunlight to spill through.

Odin felt the boy in his arm had stopped trembling and calmed. But too calm... After the sheer relief he allowed himself to feel once they broke out from the Land's spell-ward without any incident, his instinct reawakened with alarming ferocity at the wrongness and felt his talisman-sword's Heart touched him.

He looked down to the boy and his words died down when he saw his eyes that were staring back at him with alien gaze, the prussian orbs had turned to white-fire circled by the prussian rings of corona-discharge. The expression on the face was one of an old and controled being. Odin swallowed once and was going to ask the boy whether he's alright, but the boy's hand lifted without a word and touched his midforehead just above his brows with the tip of his fingers.

And a white-flame tornado swirling from all around them, engulfing them in a blaze second. The warsteed neighed and stood on its hindlegs in surprise, Odin widened his eyes as he felt the airy fingers penetrated his forehead and brushed his soul. And in that fraction of time, the white-flames frozen, incarcerating the man and his warsteed in a clear icelike shell.

Another burst of white-flame blazed in the air near the frozens, it floated above the ground for a couple of seconds, and the blazing flames opened itself exposing the boy in it, being caressed by the soft and transparent 'hands' of whitefire. He opened his eyes slowly, his pupils were still in their alien state, his wispy hair winding skyward as if the breeze itself.

The white-flame thinned and the boy jumped to the ground as light as air. He looked up to the sky and lifted his right hand above his face, flexed the fingers a few times. Then looked around, he only gave a flicker of glance at the frozen human and his steed at his side. The boy gave a long unreadable stare at the Land before him, then offhandedly turned around, put all the ordeals in that Land behind his back, his past. He then moved forward to the free outerlands, with only a few unearthly steps he crossed a long distance like a gust of wind, and stopped on one of the sand dune in the open desert.

Blinked a few times as if sleepily, the boy closed his eyes indulging in the light windy air, and inhaled deeply, then opened his lips just slightly and a low whalelike reverberating sound echoed clearly in the air around him, pursed his lips whistlinglike to make the high-pitched ones. He enjoyed himself and the air singing all around him for sometime. And the sun welcomed him like a long lost son, and the wind danced and caressed his being, and the sands playfully brushed his feet and arms, and the distant untouchable sky watched over him like the open arms of a mother's, the pale-white crescent moon smiling at him from up there.

The scent of the sands brought up a memory that flashed in his mind's eye; he braced himself on his knees on the goldenbeast's head and reclined to Solo's metal-body's back, with arms slung on 'his' shoulders. The liquid-metal hands held them with loose grips. He rest his chin at the back of one metal shoulder, a small smile hidden behind it, his eyes drooped lazily, feeling the wisps of Solo's thin layers of metal-hair brushed his face gently.

...If you possess that much power, shouldn't you be able to heal yourself ? Solo asked casually.

. . . . I can't; the boy answered 'his' question in his mind; ...my body is a traitor...!

Then as if being warned by the memory, he opened his eyes and looked down, lifted his palm to his chest feeling the anomaly there. A glimmer of white aura glowed in his open palm, as suddenly a burst of black-charges exploded countering it. His eyes drooped a little, expressing his distaste at it, while the black charges still flashed in the air as if countering his disagree.

The boy looked back to the Land behind, and narrowed his eyes, otherwise his expression didn't change a bit from the beginning he's awakened. He floated back to the Land in a flash, there's something he should do with this troublesome-thing in his traitorous body...!! If he can't remove the thing, he'd just have to deal with the source that stimulated it to live!

A flash of violet eyes in his mind... his eyes hardened on the stony face as the resolve made.

tbc

(1) one of the many types of Spells, it actually the Spell's name or something to call it. Well, since Spells don't have names, the given words to call them counted as their names.

...hmmmm, quite some 180° turns, right...? hahahahahaa honestly didn't think much of the plot's progress, since it's already been waaaay out of the original idea... ;; (don't blame saru... saru is a BAKA...!)

if you notice the written date saru add on the top of each chapter you must notice that saru uploaded the new chapter after a long span of time (saru is lazy-bussy). just want to inform you who kindly read this fic, that saru' CPU went BOOM in the middle of typing chapter 10... " so, pliz be MORE patient with meh-d-monkey... ;